FellowshipOfTheTables

Chapter 11 "Lordling...Leave the sandals and vest." Ugh, Gaz is such a great character to hate. Amazing how the bridge crew considers the "Honor chasm" an honorable choice. Makes me hate Sadeas' war camp so much for what they do to these men. "We should all become surgeons. Every last one of us" - such a wholesome sentiment for someone about to commit suicide. The writing in this whole freaking chapter is just so great.This? Right here? This is what makes me want to write. Teft has arrived! Such a great reward for Kal turning back from the Honor chasm!

Chapter 9 Man, this chapter. It’s not easy to get through, even knowing where the story goes from here. The joke about learning names for Damnation, so they can chat about how much more pleasant it is than Bridge 4 was. Wow. Really dark stuff. Syl tells Kal “You haven't spoken in days.” - ugh, what a life. And, impressive as always, Michael Kramer’s voice for Kal right after that, sounds raspy, like it hasn’t been used in a while. According to Coppermind, the reason for Sylphrena talking about watching him fight, even though, when he first met her, she was just like a regular windspren, was that she lost most of her cognitive ability. That’s such a cool concept. Syl is just the best. And then…she leaves. Just, ugh. Poor Kaladin. Content warning for suicidal ideation in the below text Chapter 10 Lirin tells Kal "The Heralds were sent to teach mankind. They led us against the Voidbringers after we were cast from heaven." This...is so messed up, in so many ways. It's really interesting to see the casual mention of a statement that's so opposite of truth, but widely accepted. I hope we actually learn more about what happened on Ashyn before the actual Voidbringers left. Lirin gets a lot of crap, but he really does seem to love helping people, and does it well, and loves Kal, too. While I don't necessarily agree with his pacifistic stance, I can certainly respect it a lot.

Chapter 7 It’s interesting that, in her youth, Shallan’s father forbade her to spend time with Parshmen. Wonder if he knew something that most people didn’t?? I also find it interesting that there’s a mention that the Devotaries tried to reconcile with Jasnah. Like, I wonder what that was about. My impression was that they didn’t do anything in particular to make her mad, she just didn’t like them. So, what, they just tried to make her like them again? I can’t remember, did we ever learn where Shallan’s father got a Soulcaster? IIRC, when she learns about the Ghostbloods, she assumes he got it from them, but I can’t remember if that was confirmed. Hmm, those Palanaeum doors are super interesting. I don’t remember ever coming back to learn more about what this “chart” is on them. Part of the diagram, maybe? Wow, that first flash of memories, including the mention of her shardblade. I got chills! I love the overall description of her drawing, it seems like Brandon had a lot of fun with it. This description of Shallan using the souls of people as a medium makes me wonder if her drawing ability is partly connected with her Surgebinding. So much of Brandon’s magic has to do with the soul. She also mentions how important it is to get the eyes right - and people’s eyes are the one thing that a shardblade burns out, when separating the soul from the body. In fact, the eyes and their connection to the soul seem like a recurring theme throughout the series. I really like her description of Shallan’s letter to Jasnah as “A lie built of truths”. Such a cool concept. Chapter 8 It’s so crazy that they casually use money for light. I’d be constantly losing a fortune in doing exactly what Shallan did, leaving a bunch of spheres behind by accident. Strange collection of maps in Shallan’s father’s study - I wonder what that’s about. Her brother later says he suspects that their father was making a play to become a high prince, but that doesn’t sound right to me. “The Secret held 10 heartbeats away”....eep. I don’t know how I didn’t realize what a big deal this was the first time. I’ll never not giggle at a line when Shallan and Yalb are talking; She tells him Jasnah refused to take her as a ward, and he asks “What’s wrong with her?”, to which Shallan replies “Chronic competence.” Such a great answer. I love the interactions between Shallan and Yalb in general; I hope they wind up meeting again.

So, in my thread,I'm adding a new post to the thread every time I get through a new chapter. If there's ever a time when nobody comments on my previous chapter (and thus my notes on the previous chapter are the last post in the thread), I assume that doesn't prohibit me from posting the next one, right? Just wanted to make sure, since I'm new to the forums.

Chapter 6 The only thing that sticks out to me from this chapter is the reference to Dalinar. The bridge crew tells Kal he's “the most honorable Shardbearer” and that he's sad to have “never broken his word”. Interesting that that's the reputation he has, 5 years after Gavilar's death. Nothing about being a drunk, or wild on the battlefield, or anything like that.

Oooh, this is really good, thank you! Yeah, this makes a lot more sense. Hmm, so the Shadesmar has a sun that's only visible in it. Is that sun only in the Cognitive realm? Super weird. Chapter 5 On this read-through, when Taravangian asked for help for his granddaughter, I couldn’t help but worry that he had put her in danger, or had some other scheme involved with this. Thankfully, I read a WoB that, while he made use of Jasnah’s presence, it doesn’t seem like he caused it Was there any reason for Jasnah to ask for the mass of the chunk of rock? Perhaps trying to estimate the amount of smoke that it would transform into? I would think it was just an abstract question she tried to stump Shallan with, but then she really did get the mass from the King. I’m a little confused about Shallan’s timeline. After Jasnah rejects her as a ward, she thinks that the child of 6 months ago would have dissolved into tears. But she’s been traveling for the last 6 months. So, that would suggest to me that the events that toughened her up happened in those 6 months. But we know that the worst of what happened to her, happened before leaving to Jasnah. Maybe I’m just overthinking this, but it seems odd to me.

Chapter 4 The only thing I really took note of in this chapter was, once again, the epigraph, another death rattle. They saw someone with a “head of lines” - a cryptic? - and a “distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a darkened sky.” Is that a reference to shadesmar somehow? It also says the sample is "of particular note", whatever that means. This epigraph and the previous one really confuse me.

Chapter 3 The epigraph for this chapter is really weird. This “renowned cobbler", in his death rattle, decided to tell a little story? Apparently set in the past? Knowing what I now know of Shallan’s backstory, it’s chilling to see Shallan casually thinking about life growing up with her dad. Much more chilling than the times I see her struggling to block it out. Honestly, it took me an embarrassingly long time to connect this “Princess Jasnah” with the assassinated king from the prelude. I know they outright stated it, but it just went over my head the first time. Too much, all at once. Somewhat less embarrassingly, I didn’t connect the “Veden” race with “Jah KeVED” until this reading. I’ve seen some people talk about how Shallan is so unkind to people of lower status than her. But, when you look at this introductory chapter about her, it’s clear that that’s not the picture that Brandon is painting. Her interactions with the captain, Yalb, even the driver who took her to the Conclave, all show a very different story; she may not be perfect, but she tries to genuinely connect with people. One interesting, very passing note - when she’s thinking about how the sailors casually flirt with her, she thinks back to her life growing up in her father’s estates, and notes this: “Servants, even those who had been full citizens, had been afraid to step out of their place” - I wonder why the note about citizenship. Was this ever clarified? Just a tiny thing, I notice that the freehand is always the woman's right hand. I bet that must suck for people who are left-handed.

Short one for chapter 2: When Kaladin is asked about how he got his brands, he says, essentially: “I killed a light-eyes. That didn’t get me the slave brand, though. It’s the one I didn’t kill that was the problem” - I assume here that he’s thinking that he should have killed Amaram? The real heroine, Syl, has arrived! At one point, in his self-flagellation, Kaladin is thinking of people he’s supposedly failed to protect. He thinks of a time “Before he failed Tien, blood on his hands and the corpse of a young girl with pale skin” - this is a patient in his father’s hometown, right?

I'm loving all the great discussion here! Thanks, ya'all! Here are my notes on Chapter 1. There aren't a ton, as a lot of it was pretty straight-forward. The epigraph notes of the death rattle “Sample is considered questionable”. I wonder if this means that they doubt that it was actually influenced by Moelach, or what exactly they’re questioning about it. Here, we see Kaladin’s squad calling him “Kaladin Stormblessed”. I know Bridge 4 started calling him that after he survived the highstorm, too, but I can’t remember if they did so completely independently, or if someone had remembered this nickname from before. If it was completely independent…wow, that’s something. Makes me think the Stormfather’s frequent references to Kaladin as the “Son of Tanavast” mean something really specific about his heritage. Kaladin is also described as being lucky, and at one point, Cenn sees a warping of the air around him. I know that some of what keeps Kaladin’s men alive is his training, but it’s really interesting that these supernatural things are also already happening. It reminds me of how he was unconsciously making the arrows miss the bridge 4 guys, but I assumed that was connected to Syl being around; here, we see it before she has even showed up. I can’t remember any other reference to a radiant having things like this happen before they were even close to swearing their first ideal It’s mentioned that Kaladin’s squad is the front because of “something about camp politics”. I don’t remember any future mention of this, though. Do we know why this was? It’s interesting to me to see Alethi fighting each other in this fight. Seems like they’re constantly fighting; among their princedoms, Gavilar conquering the other princedoms, fighting against the Parshendi, the other nations’ assumptions that the Alethi would conquer them. Makes me think that The Thrill is influencing the whole race, causing them to fight so much. Dallet tells Cenn, of the young recruits that Kaladin picks for his squad “I think you remind him of someone”. In my first reading, of course, I had no way of knowing what this was talking about, but it’s obvious now, and a tearjerker of a line.

I'm working off the audiobook version, so these will be transcribed as best I can, but here you go.

Absolutely! My goal with this reading is to absorb as much as possible, to be ready for SA5. But do we know that they fought? So Listener blood is orange, then? I can't remember. Yeah, that actually makes way more sense, good call. Oh wow, this is super interesting. Ok, now my notes on the Prelude: The “Parshendi” tradition of White-wearing assassins feels like something that gets mentioned here and then never again (at least as far as I can recall). I didn’t realize until just now that there are 3 casual herald appearances in this scene; the 2 that Elhokar is talking to, and then the crazy/drunk Jezrien. Wow I couldn’t figure out why the statue of Shash was missing until I looked it up, and remembered the interlude later that explains all about it. When Szeth thinks that using Stormlight lights is profane - is this a Shin thing? I don’t remember it ever coming up again. It’s mentioned here that Alethi dark-eyes can’t wear a sword? That’s surprising to me. None of the dark-eyed soldiers in any of the armies wear a sword? That can’t be right. Szeth can only contain Stormlight for a few minutes - not true of Radiants, right? Is that unique to Szeth? Szeth wonders if Voidbringers even existed. Then notes that “his [Szeth’s] punishment declared that they didn’t. His honor demanded that they did.” The first part, I can understand. He wouldn’t be truthless if Radiants/Fused existed. I don’t understand the second part, though. “What am I? I’m…sorry” - this is such a chilling line. So…shardblades “fuzz” when touching living skin. I feel like Sanderson uses that metaphor a lot; is it basically just when something related to the cognitive realm comes in contact with something in the physical? Speaking of which, why do Shardblades actually burn out eyes? We know they’re separating the soul from the body, essentially, but, why would that physically affect the eyes? Other than that it’s delightfully terrifying.

Thank you! I'm fine with having the thread here (since the focus will be on Stormlight), with the non-Stormlight references marked with spoilers, if the admins are good with that. I'm not clear whether the Cosmere tag is appropriate for such content. I'm fine with any Cosmere content. Though, as you said, in this forum, it will have to be spoiler marked if it's non-SA. And yes, where there are answers to my questions, I'd love to hear them! Ooh, yes, I'd love to hear more on this, please! And any such references are welcome! Hm. I don't know why I had it in my head that Fused possession changes the color of blood.

Hi all! This is my first post on the forums here. I started listening to the audiobook of Mistborn earlier this year, on my way to GenCon, and have been binging my way through everything Cosmere. Now that I've pretty well caught up on Cosmere, I'm doing a re-read of Stormlight Archive, going through it more slowly, hoping to time the completion of it with when book 5 comes out. As such, I'm going to have running threads with notes and musing as I'm going through it all, hoping to prove further discussion. I have no particular structure planned for each post, but will hope to dump notes from a chapter or two per day, on average. I'm marking the whole thread as Cosmere, so that it's safe to make references to anything. Ok, so here we go with the Prelude! I love how Kalak just casually mentions having died a few times before over the centuries; great way to show the scale of the epic right off the bat. I'm wondering whether this scene is taking place on Roshar; I assume so, but we're not really told. It could theoretically be Braize, though he mentions later going "back", which seems to indicate that he's not there now. We're not given many hints on this, as far as I can tell; the place is just described as a lot of stone columns; he says "not a lot of plants grow here", and mentions a "northern waterway". During the description of the battlefield, he mentions red, orange, and violet blood: I'm guessing that's human, Parshendi, and Fused blood, respectively? Kalak notes in passing that he's supposed to go back to Damnation if he survives, and I'm wondering what that travel is like. Do they go to Damnation through Shadesmar? Are they transported there magically somehow? I don't think we know the answer to this yet. He notices all the blades except Taln's, and thus surmises that those all survived, noting that the blades would have disappeared if their owners died. I'm curious about that, since we see Jezrien die later in the series, and then see his blade given to Moash. So...what is he referencing here? Is he just saying that the Honorblade would go with the dead Herald to Braize? It's interesting to me to think about what the end of a Desolation looks like. We know that the Desolation isn't a single huge battle, it's a world-wide war. So...what exactly makes him know that this is the end of the Desolation? Did they kill all the Fused? Was this some final, climactic battle that just was obviously the end of the whole war? He also says the enemy is growing increasingly tenacious, and I wonder if he's comparing this Desolation to previous Desolations, or just saying that, over the course of the Desolation, they put up more and more resistance. He also says "He will not be bound by this, the enemy. He will find a way around it." - I assume "he" here is a reference to Odium, but not sure what "this" is - the breaking of the Oathpact? The end of the Desolation? How would either of those bind Odium? The last thing I'll point out in the prelude is that he says that the Heralds willingly chose the pact, and thus can willingly give it up. For one thing, that seems really opposite of how Honor's oaths are mentioned in the rest of the series, as being so incredibly important not to break. But also, I hear a lot of people talk about how mean Honor is to force these 10 people repeatedly die and suffer, but we see here that it was clearly their decision.